Question for Rusty or anyone else that knows. I know I'm opening my self to some good answers but I will ask anyway.

Just after dark, about 6:00PM, There are two very bright objects in the southern sky just above the horizon. The brightest object is a little below and to the right of the other object. They are almost due south, maybe a little west of due south. What am I looking at?

Nick

The lower one is Venus, the upper one, Jupiter.

Monday, 12/1, the Moon will be close to beween them, and will occult Venus, but that occultation won't be visible in North America.

On 12/3, Neptune will be three Moon widths south of the Moon. Binoculars will be necessary. Look for a bluish dot. It doesn't show up as a disk until around 50X.

re. Venus etc. Thanx, Nick. I have been pondering the same for a number of evenings with the almost verbatim question with Rusty in mind. I suspected the bright leader of the pair was Venus as my son=in=law has taught me, but that was in Pa. and these are so for south in the southern sky. Additional question for Rusty. Can the pair also be seen from eastern Pa. at this time?

Not after sunset - PA is too far north. They can be seen in daylight, however - usually it takes some magnification - binoculars, etc.

Thanx, Rusty, as I suspected the earth really is somewhat round. Maybe more an oblate spheroid.

Hey Rusty!

New Year's Eve I was outdoors watching the many fireworks around our lake here in Florida when my eyes saw something spectacular! A ball of orange fire was going across the sky, appearing faster than an airplane, but about ten times slower than a shooting star.

I called to all my indoor guests to see the spectacle and by the time they assembled outdoors it was a small orange glow on the horizon.

There were many speculations (plane, slow shooting star, a phoenix) , but I had surmised it must have been a satellite or space junk burning up in the atmosphere. What else short of aliens could explain the slow speed!

As we were speculating, another ball of fire appeared to our west above the house...now everyone could see this ball of fire...my reputation was restored! Then, before this one could get out of sight, yet another appeared. Now my mind was contemplating Armageddon!!!

Someone ran in the house for the binoculars as more balls of fire were stacking up, all headed in the same trajectory. I thought, the International Space Station must have broken up.

As the seventh or eight UFO went over it appeared much lower in altitude. I got it in my binocular as it shot over my house and just then I could make out a faint balloon keeping it airborne, perhaps paper even. I still have no idea who or what these things were, but clearly they were terrestrial in origin!

Since we are only a few miles east of the Gulf of Mexico (with objects traveling mostly east), they must have quickly risen into a pretty fast air stream I now know. Perspective is a valuable tool for guessing velocity.

For the brief hour or so, before we knew what these things were, I was pretty well mesmerized. Perhaps it would have been cool to not know and theorize as to the unknown. In any case, the originators of the flaming balls will likely never know how fascinated we were for the time we were in the dark.

Thought you'd get a kick out of this.... Happy New Year!!!!!

Interesting - no idea what they were.